06 Feb 2013 — Henning Lahmann

In a world redundant with laptop-generated music made by aloof loners, there probably is nothing more clichéd than the notion of 'bedroom music'. Still, occasionally you come across songs that enunciate a sentiment that cannot escape a certain connection to both intimacy and alienation that so archetypically throw us back to that safe haven as such, irrespective of genre pinpointing or indeed the actual place of recording. It is that sort of music that immediately makes you feel that distinctive kind of isolation, be it under constraint or not, eventually reaching a level of cathartic introspection that leaves you questioning anything that only hours ago appeared to be certain and settled. In that way, it makes no difference if it happens in a cabin northwestern Wisconsin or in a Neukölln apartment; we’ve all been there, and just as the sentiment itself, such music is essentially placeless – and it is that exact feeling that the music of Yule FM is all about.

Bless Us Everyone, the third album by the local solo project (with a little help from friends in live situations), features twelve fragile, restrained compositions of strikingly conceptual chamber pop, containing a more than remarkable level of musical sophistication in terms of arrangement and production, yet without ever trying too hard or being overly obvious about it; if anything, it's rather quite the opposite. Before any song risks becoming even feebly epic or expressing any sort of grand gesture, it will already be over again, as if being reluctant to unveil what is actually going on. Yet it is this sincere hesitation that will leave its mark on the listener, as the indeterminacy indeed seems to be key in all of Yule FM's work; every note on Bless Us Everyone might breathe melancholy, but there is and always will be a door out of the bedroom, out of isolation: "Let's Not Be Alone", the artist quietly sings halfway into the LP. We should probably take that advice to heart.

Bless Us Everyone will be out very soon via Berlin and Portland label/artist collective H as in Records, at the outset sold in a very limited edition of hand designed t-shirts that come with download codes, other physical formats set to follow. Highly recommended.

Yule FM will play live as part of the Cartouche #03 Release Party at Antje Öklesund on February 15, with us DJing. Go here for more details and the full line-up.